Photo Contributed by Vince Venkat

“Overall, I would like to use my award as a way to expand our already growing community both within the campus and beyond it, fulfilling something I have always longed for since I was a kid,” Vince Venkat said.

Junior Vince Venkat, president of California Lutheran University’s Disability Advocacy Student Association, is being awarded Individual of the Year by the Autism Society of Ventura County. 

According to ASVC’s website, Awesome in Autism awards are given to those who demonstrate exceptional advocacy and support for the autism community. This year’s awards ceremony will take place on Oct. 16 in Simi Valley.

“When I first received the email saying that I won the award, I will admit that I was surprised since I did not realize that my work in DASA was being observed outside of Cal Lutheran,” Venkat said in an email interview.

In addition to serving as DASA president, Venkat is a junior senator for the Associated Students of California Lutheran University Government who is majoring in political science.

Ryan Byrne, secretary of DASA, said Venkat was nominated by Lila Woodard, a fellow student who runs a peer support group for neurodivergent students through Campus Ministry. 

“The story that I have been told is that Lila, who runs the peer support group, which [DASA] collaborates with, nominated him sometime at the end of last semester, and he was notified that he won in August,” Byrne said.

The ASVC originated in 1994 and was founded by local parents, educators and professionals to support newly diagnosed families in navigating local resources, according to the nonprofit’s website. The organization also aims to provide lifelong access and opportunities to individuals within the autism spectrum.

This is not the first time an individual has been awarded by ASVC at Cal Lutheran. 

Edlyn Vallejo Peña, a professor in the Educational Leadership doctoral program at Cal Lutheran, was awarded Parent of the Year by the ASVC in 2012 and was recently announced as winner of the 2025 Shining Star of the Year award, which, according to Peña, is a “lifetime achievement reward.”

“I think it is important for CLU as a whole … to include students with disabilities in other ways beyond the classroom … so that all students feel like they belong in campus and that they are part of the campus life at CLU,” Peña said.

In DASA, Venkat’s daily life consists of rotating between regular club meetings and officer meetings. This also includes creating an agenda for collaborations, such as helping the peer support group with Campus Ministry, and recently, the club collaborated with DSS on Foodie Friday. 

“As a club, the next steps would probably be to plan the service project this year and execute the project,” Byrne said. “We’ll probably look into collaborating with other clubs.”

Venkat said his main priority at DASA is to create a disabled community where members can all feel visible and heard by others—an experience that he longed for growing up. 

“When I was a kid, I struggled to fit into this neurotypical world that always pointed out my shortcomings rather than my strengths. Not only did I receive this treatment from kids my age, but I also received it from adults who were supposed to help me,” Venkat said.

Venkat said he strives to build a community for those who went through similar experiences as him, which led him to join the DASA board as vice president last year. 

After Venkat heard from his roommate at the time, Luis Perez Jr. ’25, that DASA was approved for the 2024-2025 year, he “immediately jumped at the opportunity to make that difference.” After Perez graduated, Venkat said he wanted to continue his efforts as the club’s president.

“I have always believed that to grow a community, its members have to reach out and draw in other members,” Venkat said. “I feel that it is that willingness to reach out to any and every group to get our name out there, along with my belief in fostering acceptance and visibility based on my own experiences with a lack of those, that paved the way for me to get nominated for the award.”

Venkat said his goal is to extend DASA’s influence beyond Cal Lutheran and wants to make plans to focus on assisting disability centers and schools. He said he hopes to include the ASVC in those efforts through his annual service projects. 

“Overall, I would like to use my award as a way to expand our already growing community both within the campus and beyond it, fulfilling something I have always longed for since I was a kid,” Venkat said.